Technical Communication

A Design-Centric Approach

Jon Balzotti

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781032078281
  9780367438302
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000450286
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Writing
• Index: Business

Technical Communication: A Design-Centric Approach is a comprehensive textbook for introductory courses in technical communication and professional writing.

Technical Communication takes a design approach to foundational and emergent technical communication skills such as document design, job applications and interviews, workplace collaboration, and report writing, providing students with practical guidance on matters of ethics, style, and problem-solving in a range of professional and organizational contexts.

This is a core textbook suitable for undergraduate courses in technical and professional communication.

The book is supplemented by an innovative website featuring interactive simulations of various real-world technical communication challenges. Visit https://microcore.byu.edu/

Part I:
Establishing a Framework

It’s important to understand a few establishing principles that will frame how you approach any writing task. The purpose of Part I is to provide you with a context of what technical writing is, introduce a design-centric model that will guide your writing process, and provide instruction on principles of style, document design, and ethics.

Mastering these five areas will prepare you to succeed in drafting any technical document. As you move throughout the book and learn more about specific technical genres, you may want to refer back to sections in Part I to better guide your progress and remind yourself of what you have learned.

It’s important to note that effective writing isn’t a talent that some people possess and others don’t. Learning and practicing frameworks for writing and speaking will enable anyone to write and communicate effectively. The job of this textbook is to teach you those frameworks—the practice is up to you.

Writing skills are highly sought-after in the technical workplace. People enjoy working with colleagues who are able to clearly communicate and do so in a respectful manner. Communication skills help provide value to clients, resolve conflict, and get work done right the first time.

Recent graduates who pursue technical and scientific careers are often surprised by the amount of writing required during their day-to-day tasks. In fact, you’ll likely find that you spend between 25 and 40 percent of your workday using and creating technical documents. Given the importance of these tasks in the technical workplace, employers highly value technical writing skills.

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Approximately 50 percent of all employers take writing skills into account during the hiring process. Many employers complain that communication skills in general are lacking in college graduates and those entering the workforce.

For example, the members of the American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA) ranked oral communication as the number one skill that new hires needed to improve. Technical writing was number three.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), while some employers anticipate offering short-term, job-specific training to technical communicators, having the basic skills and ability to apply them in a variety of circumstances is a prerequisite to earning many positions in today’s workplace.

If you have proficient technical writing skills you’ll have more success both in starting a career and in succeeding in it than one who chooses to forego developing such skills.

According to the BLS, job opportunities for those with good technical writing skills will continue to be plentiful. Taking time now to hone your writing and overall communication skills is an investment in your professional success.

As you practice your technical writing skills, you’ll find that they will help you become an invaluable employee in any organization.

CHAPTER 1
What Is Technical Communication?

The Basics

In very practical terms, technical communication is used every day by professionals and consumers to solve problems in the workplace. The motive of technical communication is to employ words and images to help readers, not writers, accomplish their goals which might include helping employees learn something important for their job, perform a task on the job, or make critical decisions that impact the long-term security of the company.

Whatever the goal, technical communication should be accessible, clear, and easily understood so readers can accomplish whatever they need by using the message you create. Now let’s lay some groundwork by discussing the basics of technical communication.

Of course, to communicate, you must start with something you want to express—information that is directed to someone, and for our purposes we call that someone the “end user.”

Users in the domain of technical communication are the rhetorical audience who need our documents for some particular workplace purpose. They are the ones that we want to empathize with and plan our writing around in order to give it the strongest effect.

For instance, say you are tasked with writing an internal-proposal for your team’s latest brainstorm session. The end user might be your immediate supervisor, or even the board of directors at your company. Your end users in this scenario are the decision-makers: the ones that will read your writing and determine whether or not to spend resources on the new project.

While the example of a proposal is a particular genre of technical writing, we should expand our definition of technical communication to include presentations, reports, descriptions, instructions, audiovisual forms, numerical communications, etc.

For instance, in a presentation, the technical communicator would be considering the way a presentation looks and how the design of their communication can help the user stay engaged and how the design might also communicate credibility (or lack thereof).

It’s important to keep in mind that technical communication can be used in a variety of forms and that elements of document design can influence whether an end user will read and understand the message or whether the document appears confusing or frustrating.

Now we need to focus in on technical writing as a vital category within technical communication, with a functional definition of its own. Technical writing can be defined as the delivery of practical, scientific, or mechanical information in a way that is clear, accurate, and easily accessible for a specific group of people. As we said above, we define those people as users, since the kind of writing we’re talking about is used routinely by people to solve problems in daily life.

Technical communication is also the way important information is shared and passed on in scientific or engineering sites and work-places. Although there are a lot of types of technical writing, they’re all tied together by a definition that includes the everyday goals of the end user. The definitions below are not mutually exclusive, but important to take into account as features and goals of good technical writing.

Technical writing should:

• Transmit what may be detailed and complex information as quickly and clearly as possible. Although the material may be difficult, your goal is to pass it on to your end user in a succinct and effective manner. Communicate with appropriate complexity, using the right vocabulary, for the user and situation. You must know who your users are and what they need the information for.
• Use standardized forms, called genres, that follow expected and familiar conventions. In this way, technical users can understand more information on the first read and avoid slogging through an unfamiliar format. It’s the mark of a professional to learn how to communicate in the genre of the community you’re trying to inform or persuade. Anticipate what your end user expects and communicate according to those expectations through problem-solving and critical thinking.
• Be objective. Objectivity is required in most instances of technical writing because the information is what’s important, not the opinion of the writer. Being objective signals that the focus is on facts, not feelings. Objectivity can assist in presenting a message clearly, without imposing barriers that opinion or bias can create, such as emotion-based disagreements or responses.

Even though technical writing requires objectivity and the human element isn’t always present in the writing itself, the technical writer should be conscious that her or his end user is made up of real people with real problems.

Burying meaning in difficult jargon or convoluted phrasing (sometimes called “legalese,” “academese,” or any other “-ese” depending on the audience) will frustrate the user’s goal of getting quickly to the pertinent information they need. Rather, the meaning should be clear and accessible so information is useful and comprehensible.

Attention to the conventions of technical writing, appropriate complexity, proper objectivity, and c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Part I: Establishing a Framework
• Part II: Mastering Technical Genres
• Appendix A: Punctuation Guide
• Appendix B: Student Exercises
• Appendix C: Supplementary Examples
• Index